The world should wake up to the reality that climate could change dramatically in the course of a lifetime, according to a leading expert who has spent almost 30 years studying the Arctic.
Speaking last night in Dublin, the geophysicist Prof Sigfus Johann Johnsen, of the University of Copenhagen, said that in addition to polar regions indicating the threat of climate change, the drilling of ice cores (columns extracted from the ice) by his research team had shown there was an inherent instability in the climate systems.
This emerged after 27 summers spent on what is known as the Greenland Ice Sheet. Prof Johnsen said just thinking of the extent to which climates were unstable worried him.
Speaking to The Irish Times before his lecture at the Royal Irish Academy on evidence of global climate change "unlocked from Greenland ice cores", he said his concerns were compounded by evidence that the way humans lived and used resources was feeding change.
It was incredible in such a scenario how quickly significant climate change might occur, contrary to popular perception that change will occur gradually over thousands of years, while any change would have immense consequences.
He added: "Our data from deep sea cores show it can change in a matter of a lifetime. It should be worrying, shouldn't it? I'm not saying it's happening now but I think we should be very careful."
Being careful meant controlling carbon dioxide but also other gases. Stricter controls were needed and would be costly in the short term. However, they were likely to pay off in the future.
